Dangerous course or dangerous force?

If you don’t want to see crashes, don’t watch the opening week of the Tour de France, warns Anthony Tan.

It's been a long time since I've witnessed this much carnage at the Tour de France.

The last occasion I can recall such circumstances was 11 years ago, at the 1999 Tour.

What was thought to be a relatively innocuous second stage quickly turned into a massacre, when on the Passage du Gois, a two-mile long causeway that depending on tidal conditions can be submerged in water, a 25 rider pile-up eventuated that split the field to itty bitty pieces and left Lance Armstrong's most noted adversary, Swiss rider Alex Zülle, behind in a frantic chase that never regained contact.

Zülle along with Jan Ullrich were arguably the only two riders to really challenge the Texan during his Tour reign, and Armstrong's 7'37" winning advantage did not really tell the full story.

I'm not saying Zülle would have beaten Armstrong in the first of his seven straight wins, but had he not crashed, the race would without doubt have played out very differently.

On Sunday's opening road stage to Brussels, many riders complained about the narrow roads leading to the finish; and as I write this blog minutes after another crashed-filled day to Spa that resembled a mini-Liège-Bastogne-Liège with its twisting roads and short, sharp climbs, it's certain many more will do so again, most likely the crew from Garmin and Saxo Bank.

But read this from cycling legend Eddy Merckx, who told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf after Stage 1: "It's part of the job. Especially in the beginning of a Grand Tour, you can not blame the organisation. It is the riders themselves who [must] bear the blame. If you do not want to brake and if you are not afraid to go for an opponent who is faster, then do not be afraid of crashing."

In the end Monday, the Schleck brothers were saved by an entente cordiale initiated by the erstwhile maillot jaune of Fabian Cancellara, who relinquished his golden fleece to perhaps the most popular guy in France right now, Sylvain Chavanel.

For want of a better title, the biggest loser was most definitely Garmin's Christian Vande Velde, whose second serious crash in as many Grand Tours has most certainly put paid to any chance of the podium in 2010.

For that stage at least, weather was the contributing factor behind the multitude of crashes - and that's just something you can not control at the Tour de France – or any other race for that matter.

As Merckx rightly said, another uncontrollable that pertains most particularly to the Tour is the opening week: always twitchy, always fast, and inevitably, always crashes.

Tuesday's mini-Paris-Roubaix [Stage 3] is likely to be no different and quite possibly, much worse.

If you don't want to see crashes, don't watch – or hide behind your bean bag.